


A gamers heart is always in a Toki Meki Crisis

by gulpereel



Category: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid
Genre: Age Difference, Angst, Bad Parenting, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Obsession, Sexual Content, Spoilers, Stalking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-07 09:36:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11620866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gulpereel/pseuds/gulpereel
Summary: A collection of stuff I write regarding Ex-Aid! Various different pairings and ratings and spoilers for up to episode 39 and other material.1. Hiiro/Taiga - Operation, 2. Dan Kuroto centric - God Complex, 3. Kiriya/Emu - The Dan Problem, 4. Dan Kuroto - Emu Obsession, 5. Kiriya centric + Kiriya/Dan - Mortality, 6. Group - Emu's Problems





	1. Hiiro/Taiga - Operation

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I'd give a go at some Ex-aid stuff cause why not. I don't beta anything and I write at dumb times in the late night, sorry if anything is off! If you wanna hmu about my shit i'm @gulpereelcos.

In one hand, Hiiro holds the scalpel steady but the grip is tight as a vice.

He breathes in and out calmly but he feels the sweat on his face, in his hair, feels it pool slightly at the tailbone.

Usually he like to keep his mind clear as he operates, likes to just focus on the job at hand and he's trying but invasive thoughts keep sneaking in. He looks at a sight he's seen 1000 times before, the insides of a human being looking similar no matter the person but for some reason they're different. Suddenly a procedure he's used to feels like he's being invasive, that this is something he shouldn't ever get to see, that it feels wrong but he wonders if he can actually pinpoint why.

Perhaps it was that Taiga always seemed untouchable with the way he conducted himself, the way he was around them.

Perhaps it was the guilt that he was only operating due to his own failures, his own weaknesses. That for a split second he considered Masamune's offer about failing the operation on purpose, that he'd briefly thought about ending Taiga's life with his own hands for the sake of himself.

He wonders if he could call himself a doctor anymore after this.

A nurse wipes his brow for him and he takes another deep breath.

In one hand, Hiiro holds the scalpel steady and along side it he holds Taiga's future, Taiga's present. He holds Taiga's redemption, his burdens, his past, his existence, his soul and smile.  
  
He hears Saki talk in his head, that he'll become the best doctor in the world.

He wonders if Saki will forgive him for letting her slip away from his life a second time.

He hopes Taiga will forgive him for letting his sacrifice go in vain.

Hiiro locks eyes with Emu for a split second and somehow he feels that everything is going to be okay.

\---

The up and down of Taiga's chest is hard to make out in the dim white glow of the few hopsital room lights left on, but Hiiro can see it.

He can see the signs of a beating heart, can see the subtle movements made as he sleeps, can see the mask fog ever so from the breaths. Hiiro sits and watches from a chair next to the bed, his arms crossed and his doctors coat off. He loosens his tie and rubs at his face that feels older than it should for it's age, runs his hands through his hair that perhaps needs a wash.

He's been visiting at night for the past few days and he knows he should be resting but he feels like he can't.

He'd rather watch over Taiga like this, knowing that he's saved a life rather than remember the one he's just lost for the second time. Somehow seeing Taiga alive makes the heart ache and pain ease ever so slightly, makes it feel more tolerable. The only thing is that each time he visits he knows he's being a corward, not quite facing Taiga yet during the day in the small periods in that he's lucid and awake.

The ambience of the room helps him think at least. Sort through what he'll say, what everything that's happened in the past really means. For the past 5 years he's used Taiga as a scapegoat, as a recepticle for his own failure and own burdens and the other doctor has just taken it, just accepted it and taken it upon himself to recieve it. Hiiro can't help but think about how Taiga seems to have given him what he needed to keep living, regardless of his own self, his own career and feelings.

Hiiro takes a deep breath. He doesn't understand why Taiga would do this for him for so long but he doesn't want to know the answer, not just yet. He doesn't even know how to even ask such a heavy question.

He takes another deep breath and looks upon Taiga's sleeping form again.

He sees Taiga's hand above the covers clench at fabric ever so and without thinking he reaches his own hand over, intertwines their fingers together and squeezes.

The feeling of a warm hand within his is nostalgic.

Perhaps he'll gain something more than just redemption.


	2. Dan Kuroto - God Complex

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dan has some issues but all I can think about is the Access music videos with Masamune. Anyway just a brief idea that probably doesn't line up with the canon timeline of Dan's history but it's fucking kamen rider.

Dan Kuroto figured out pretty easily that his father was cheating on his mother. 

While she laid in a hospital bed, his father was at events, was bringing home men and women from all walks of life but all seemed to have expensive tastes and shameless personalities. Dan remembers seeing them leave the penthouse he shared with his father, remembers seeing Masamune's possessive holds on his guests hips and waists as he tells Dan to go to sleep for the night. 

Dan tries to escape from this via games, playing them and designing them, thinking about characters and new worlds. He thinks about ways to save his mother, thinks about her smile whenever he used to show her designs. He thinks of everything and anything that isn't his father but it somehow always returns back to what he knows is happening a few rooms over and he snaps a pencil in half or shoves the contents of his desk onto the floor. 

One evening he makes a realization that he doesn't want to be like his father, doesn't want to be the same kind of adult Masamune has become. 

Perhaps he doesn't even want to be human if this is how humans behave. 

He'd rather be like a player of a game, an omnipresent being that's outside of what's happening in the story but still controlling it, still watching it unfold. 

He'd rather be a god, his plans and designs falling into place without the people round him knowing, his talents of creation worshiped and given the ability to change the concept of mortality. He doesn't want to be a slave to concepts like lust like his father, he doesn't want people to even consider having the right to touch him.

The next morning while sipping at a coffee he watches his father send off his guest with a small kiss at the door and suddenly the coffee tastes more bitter than before. 

He meets his fathers eyes with a glare and Masamune gives a smile back like his son is the biggest fool of them all and announces that he's going to visit the hospital, that Dan is welcome to come. 

Kuroto takes another sip of his coffee and plans his father's demise. 

A god can be both benevolent and cruel.


	3. Kiriya/Emu - The Dan Problem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shin Dan Kuroto here to ruin everything.

Kiriya, like a lot of other people, had a lot of reasons to hate Dan Kuroto. 

There were the big super obvious reasons but then there was the reasons that Kiriya didn't expect to become a problem. Small things Kiriya could deal with, things that just made him roll his eyes or give Dan a look but then there was one big, troublesome reason to hate him: Dan Kuroto was a god damn cock block. 

The murder thing? He was kinda getting over. This? Kiriya was way too close to taking one of Dan's many lives in all seriousness. 

To rewind, it had all started a couple of days after he'd returned to CR as a bugster and like any normal person back from the dead, he was trying to get laid. 

He'd gotten pretty intimate with Emu before the whole dying thing but at most they'd only really ever gotten to second base. Usually Emu would be called in for one emergency or another during or sometimes Emu would make it clear that he was just happy to kiss like teenagers and feel the shapes of each others bodies without truly taking the next step. Kiriya was fine with that, he was a patient lover, he liked foreplay and kissing and everything in-between. 

It was just, as he was facing his death, he admits briefly he thought about the fact he was gonna die without ever going further and it would've been a cherry on the cake of the whole fucking fiasco. 

So, with being alive again and not pretending to be evil, Kiriya decided that he'd at least try and offer something more to Emu, work his charm a little. 

It was late night when he tried his first attempt, in the empty CR offices at the bottom of the staircase. 

Emu had come back, stating that he'd forgotten something but Kiriya wondered if it was the truth or if Emu was just being shy about wanting to see him. Both options were pretty cute but regardless Kiriya could see a good opportunity when he saw one. A few lights had been turned off but there was a dimmed glow coming from certain areas of the offices and Kiriya couldn't help but be amazed at how Emu could look good both in this lighting and the blinding hospital lights that did most people no favours. 

He stopped Emu from climbing the stairs, appearing in an instant from new found bugster abilities and he leaned forward, put his forearm by Emu's face. He knew it was a smooth move and he saw Emu blush ever so slightly and Kiriya couldn't help but grin. 

"We should talk, Emu."

"Talk about what, Kiriya-san?"

"That punch you gave me was pretty hard, you know," Kiriya started and leaned in ever so. Any evidence that he was actually punched no longer on his face. 

"Uh, well, you kicked me pretty hard, yeah? I was just doing what you asked," Emu replied back, but he didn't seem tense or nervous, he met Kiriya's gaze head on and Kiriya could tell this wasn't the same intern from when they first met. 

"Would you always do what I ask of you, huh?"

"Within... reason," and Emu gave a small smirk that made Kiriya feel a little shiver and god he sure loves being alive. 

"And what are we defining 'reason' as here, Emu?" Kiriya leaned in just a little more, moved his free hand to caress the smooth cheek of the other doctor before bringing it down to his neck, a gentle but firm touch at the exposed skin between his doctors coat and neck. 

"Kiriya-san... I--"

"Aren't you too short to be doing this kind of position, Kiriya-san? It's going to end up in disaster, you'll be better off on the sofa," and Dan Kuroto appeared, sitting in a relaxed posed spread among the stairs and Kiriya couldn't even process the turn of events beyond staring at the other bugster with a look of disbelief. 

Emu had shut his eyes, had put his hands together in front of his face like he's praying and Kiriya knew the moment was ruined. 

Dan disappeared back upstairs and Emu scurried away, said that he'd found what he was looking for and Kiriya felt like kicking the wall. 

It was only the beginning. 

\---

"Kiriya-san, can you touch me... there?" Emu breaths out into Kiriya's ear and the coroner felt a spike of heat suddenly hit him, his gaze looks up at the intern that was currently on top of his lap. 

He had one hand caressing Emu's thigh, the soft red material in his hand almost maddening in what it was covering. His other hand was reaching up under the bright, neon tshirt that Emu was wearing and it felt like electricity to touch skin not yet explored with his own hands. 

"Where? Where do you want me to touch you, Emu?" Kiriya asks but his words are almost like a whisper in the silence of the CR office. He feels a little cruel teasing Emu like this but he wants to hear the other doctor say it out loud, wants to know that Emu wants him just as much as he does, wants to take the next step. 

Emu reaches his own hand down, takes Kiriya's hand on his thigh and directs it to his crotch and bites his bottom lip that leaves Kiriya having to take a sharp intake of breath, makes his hips buck up ever so and Kiriya wonders if this is true love. 

"Emu- fuck, I--"

"Could you two not do this in my living quarters? At least you picked a better position this time, but I've honestly not consented to be a part of such displays," and Dan is at the table, with a cup of coffee in his hand, looking upon the two on the sofa and Emu nearly falls over as he jumps from Kiriya's lap. 

"What the fuck, Dan," Kiriya says this time, and he can't believe he has to deal with Kuroto's shit with a semi. 

"It's Shin Dan Kuroto, thank you."

"Who fucking cares? Do you mind? Killing me ain't fucking enough for you or what?" 

Kiriya can see Emu make an awkward face at that line, can see him look uncomfortable between the two bugsters in the room as he silently tries to pick up his doctors coat from the floor, tries to straighten down his tshirt and adjust his trousers. 

"Yes, I do mind, like I said, I haven't consented to seeing this behavior in my office, and for one this is technically public indecency that I can not abide by, Kiriya-san, Emu," and Dan is clearly trying to hide a smirk behind the lip of his coffee mug. 

Kiriya feels his fist clench, and Emu starts to look less awkward and embarrassed and more defeated. 

"Kuroto-san," Emu starts. 

"Yes, Emu?" Dan puts his coffee mug down, gives a polite and well practiced smile. 

"Fuck off."

\---

"Emu... You're so fucking cute, can I--"

"I could google an address for a love hotel, it's not that expensive of an option-"

\---

"Oh, fuck, Emu," Kiriya moans into Emu's neck, his hip grinding against the other doctors ass, Emu's front against the corridor walls just outside the CR offices. Kiriya feels like a teenager again, he feels ready to come in his pants and not even regret it, he feels alive and--

He hears a cough nearby and then Dan is patting him on the shoulder, leans in to whisper. 

"Is this just a fetish of yours, is this what they call exhibitionism?"

Kiriya socks him in the jaw but Dan teleports away too quickly for it to connect.

\---

"Are you two secretly inviting me to join?"

\---

"Kiriya-san..." Emu starts one afternoon as they're sitting at the table in the office, his hands clasped together in front of him, his face a look of defeat that Kiriya feels is reflective of his own face. 

"Uh, yeah?"

"Wouldn't you just want to... come over to my place?"

"... Yeah, okay."


	4. Dan Kuroto - Emu Obsession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working out the ages and timelines in ex-aid gave me a headache. Anyway apparently Dan stalked Emu for like 10 years wtf Dan. 
> 
> If you wanna HMU about any of my works i'm @gulpereelcos on twitter.

Dan Kuroto is 14 when he receives the letter from Hojo Emu.

He's excited when the fanmail arrives, he enjoys the praise from fans, both adults and children, like any 14 year old would. Dan remembers rolling his eyes at first at the childish drawings, the messy handwriting but then there were pages and pages and the next moment there were torn pieces of paper laid around him, within his hands. He doesn't know how to describe the feelings he's experiencing, doesn't understand how to control it, can feel his breathing feel unnatural and his face feel hot. He wants to scream, he wants to smash something but after a few moments he regains clarity and all that's left is one particular thought.

This Hojo Emu can't be allowed to exist when he does. 

He finishes Mighty Action C within a few days and writes back. He thanks Emu for his letter, tells him that he appreciates the support, that this game was a token of his gratitude and he seals it with the bugster virus with an exhilarating glee that makes his mother ask if he'd made a new friend and how wonderful it is that he has. 

He smiles back at her and nods. 

He hands someone in the office the parcel to send off and he waits. 

\---

Dan hears about the news of a young, 8 year boy named Hojo Emu ran over on a rainy day and Kuroto pauses in the design he's working on to focus on the TV in the office. 

He bites at the tip of his pen as he watches, doesn't even notice Masamune looking at him with a curious expression from across the room, surprised his son is taking interest in current affairs of the world outside of his work. He feels a tenseness he's never felt before, feels a sense of dread but later the reporter informs of a successful surgery, of a miraculous life saving situation and suddenly there's relief.

His experiment can't just die like this. 

\---

Dan, aged 19, finds Emu's twitter and he follows but he never interacts. Emu never follows him back but Dan wakes up every morning and scrolls through the inane thoughts like they're worth gold.

He wonders how different Emu's tweets would be if he didn't have the bugster inside of him and it makes him smile knowing that this Emu wouldn't exist without him.

\---

Dan is 21 when he first sees Emu in person.

It's at a gaming tournament, one that Genm Corp are personally sponsoring and Dan takes it upon himself to merge into the masses, wears the most casual clothing he can as to not get recognized. He knows when Emu would be playing, knows who he's against and what game. He knows the characters Emu would favour, his style and tactics whatever the genre of game it is. He knows what Emu looks like but all of this information isn't hard to get when he follows every social media account Emu has.

The thing is, he knows all this data about his experiment but he's never made the first step to see him in real life until today. He'd be fine with just collecting data from his computer but something compels him to see him, compels him to look upon his creation with his own two eyes. 

Emu steps up to the stage and has the confidence of someone beyond 15 and Dan can't take his eyes off him. What is before him isn't the 8 year old that dared rival his own talents but instead Genius Gamer M that Dan knows he's responsible for. Emu has no time to create his own game ideas anymore, he's too busy playing them and Dan can't help the smile that crosses his face as he watches M annihilate the other player across from him. 

It's beautiful, and the bugster hasn't even fully matured yet. 

He doesn't approach Emu after the tournament is finished. 

A growing crystal is delicate and should be left alone.

\---

At age 22, Kuroto becomes busier with work but he still finds time to watch Emu at tournaments where he can. 

His father is surprised at his interest in the companies tournaments all the sudden but lets Kuroto do as he wishes. Sometimes Dan just goes to them as a regular member of the audience, sometimes he makes appearances handing out the prizes, promotes the games and new future titles of Genm Corp. Sometimes, he meets Emu's eyes on stage and he feels a thrill run through him. 

It's all a good distraction from the visits he now has to take to the hospital to see his mother. 

Watching Emu, he gets a sense of hope about his mothers future, that if he can control the fate of one life like this, surely he can control others. Surely he can play god yet again.

\---

Hojo Emu is 17 and Dan wonders if his obsession with him is normal.

Every morning he wakes up or sometimes he hasn't even gone to sleep yet and he checks on what Emu is going to do that day, what thoughts Emu has had since the last time he'd checked. Through out the rest of the day, through business meetings and his own work hours, he checks up on Emu's accounts, checks to see what he'll be doing next. Later in the evening, he'll watch streams of Emu playing games, of him at tournaments. 

It is an obsession and Kuroto accepts that but he knows people wouldn't understand their special relationship. 

Emu is his true masterpiece so far, his most experimental creation. Emu is his property, his guinea pig, his Adam. Dan feels like the God he knows he is as he watches Emu and it makes him feel content, makes him feel a happiness he rarely feels these days. 

He doesn't have to think about his father not visiting his mother even once at hospital or how weak she seems some days. No, instead he can think about the games he's working on and how Emu will receive them and master them and truly enjoy the games Kuroto makes.

Perhaps his obsession is actually two way but Emu only sees Kuroto as the games he makes and that's fine. 

One day, he knows he'll talk to Emu face to face and that thought leaves him feeling excited, makes his heart dance in a way and he can't help but ask himself, is this love? 

\---

Later that year, Dan hires Michihiko Zaizen to perform the removal surgery on Emu and Dan meets Parado. 

Kuroto doesn't stop watching Hojo Emu after the separation, as far a Kuroto is concerned Emu is still his.

Parado often looks like he wants to say something about it but in the end he doesn't.


	5. Kiriya centric + Kiriya/Dan - Mortality

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanna explore Kiriya/Dan more after episode 42 I feel subtweeted. Anyway it's mostly a think piece about what Onozuka said during an interview about Kiriya's character. Spoilers for everything.

Kujo Kiriya knows death well. 

Perhaps, too well.

From a young age even, Kiriya remembers vividly watching his father ceasing to be in the quiet hospital room as a child. He remembers being confused, that one moment someone he knew was alive and the next moment they weren't. That within moments someone could transform from a person to just a corpse. He remembers seeing his mother crying but all he could do was stare upon the body that was once his father and ask 'why?' He couldn't comprehend the idea of death (he still can't truly comprehend it). 

During high school, he felt like he had a pretty normal time except he remembers when someone asked him about his father and saying that he was dead just came out automatically. He remembers hating the awkward moment he received afterwards and he remembers wondering if lying there would've been better, would've stopped any pitying looks.

In the last year during his final exams, he watched a student in the year commit suicide off the building and he couldn't bring himself to look away. Kiriya felt his hands shake, sweat drip down his neck and again it's hard to comprehend but it makes him realize how it feels to fear death and it's hard to process. He fears dying and it's stupid to say that as he knows everyone is afraid to die but it becomes true and solid to him that day. 

He passes his exams and gets the university of his choice. He finds the lectures about vaccines fascinating, the studies about corpses being used for medical science interesting as much as it is morbid. A teacher discusses extra materials for him to look at and soon his opinions change about what a corpse could mean and death itself. 

Soon after, he becomes an intern and he rotates among each ward and he can only laugh at himself when he ends up feeling most at home at the morgue. 

\---

"So, do we age?" Kiriya asks Dan Kuroto at 3am in CR headquarters, laid out on the red sofa.

"Do video game characters age? Not unless the creator make them age, so, no," Kuroto replies back with a small little shrug. He's sitting at the table, sipping at a coffee occasionally and writing down something here and there. Kiriya watches him in the dimmed lights of the room as there's nothing else to watch.

"Do we bleed then?"

"Again, no," Dan puts down his pen with an exaggerated sigh, "are these questions even necessary? Why not enjoy your new found life? You get to experience a new found immortality no other human but us has yet to experience."

"It's hard to enjoy when I know I should be dead, thanks."

"Suit yourself, but, if you're that upset about it, I could always kill you again," Kuroto sends a polite smile over towards Kiriya and then a silence falls between them.

Kiriya eventually snorts and stretches out on the sofa, sits up slowly. 

"You're gonna have to try a new joke, it's getting a bit stale." 

\---

His mother once sat down with him over afternoon tea once and asked him why he was going to become a medical examiner and Kiriya couldn't really give her a straight answer. 

She was worried, she wasn't super spiritual but grew up being taught that working with the dead had a certain stigma to it, she told him that it just didn't seem like the type of job to suit him. He was too happy for such a job, that it'd be a waste for him to work in such a field but at that he had to make a face. 

How can a job that makes use of unwanted material for medical science and discoveries be considered a waste? How can a job that's so important to families wanting to know the truth about loved ones be not as important as any other profession? 

He leaves his meeting with his mother with a new sense of determination and he just feels like he's going to truly make a difference. 

He's not quite sure what the difference will be but he knows something will drop into his lap eventually. 

\---

"Do you like dying? Just wondering, seems like you do sometimes," Kiriya asks Kuroto one evening, again in the dimmed CR offices but this time Kiriya sits by the arcade machine, leaning back on the cabinet.   
"What brings on this question?"

"Let's just call it morbid curiosity, yeah?"

"Well, short answer is 'yes' but long answer is probably 'no.'"

"That's not really an answer," Kiriya gives Dan a look, the other bugster sitting nearby at the table again but this time he's on his laptop typing away. Kuroto isn't even bothering to turn around to face him when replying but Kiriya was expecting that. 

"Does anyone enjoy dying? It's disgusting, frankly, to be rendered into just nothing more than flesh."

"But we don't exactly have fleshy bodies anymore."

"Exactly, therefore short answer is yes. Each time I come back alive it's just further proof of my talents to surpass even the concept of death--"

"Playing god is going to get boring after while you know," Kiriya cuts in and Dan stops what he's typing, turns to face the medical examiner. Kuroto gives him a look that's devoid of any of his usual bravado and it makes the hairs on Kiriya's arms stand up ever so in the silence. 

"Kujo-san," Dan meets his eyes directly, "aren't you the bored one?"

\---

He met Jungo Aihara when he started his formal position as a medical examiner and they hit it off well. 

Jungo was a bit of a timid man but he was kind and knew how to have a bit of fun. Kiriya admired the way he conducted himself and his work and overall Kiriya enjoyed his company during work hours and outside of it. 

If it wasn't for the fact that Jungo would talk about his girlfriend whenever they went out drinking, Kiriya wonders if anything could've happened between them but--

He doesn't like to think about it.

\---

"I think I get it, Kiriya," Kuroto announces one evening, standing in front of the other bugster with his arms crossed over his chest with a slightly smug looking smile. 

"Get what? You're kinda acting fucking creepy, even for you."

"Emu has left you, yes? His new partner is Parado, somehow, and now you're left with immortality but no real purpose," Kuroto raises an eyebrow at Kiriya's glare, "so you're trying to figure out a way to be 'useful' for Emu, perhaps to gain his attention again? That's quite sad, Kujo-san."

"A, you're wrong, B, I don't need you of all people to pity me."

"Most people would want a God to pity them, but, fine, go on then, tell me the truth," and Kuroto looks at him expectantly, like he's waiting for the secret of the universe.

Kiriya is silent for a few moments, then crosses his own arms to reflect the others body language. 

"Like I owe you the truth."

\---

He knows he probably shouldn't have taken the files but he's always been one to walk the line a little here and there and honestly it was the Ministry's fault to leave them in a place where someone could just grab them. 

He's not quite sure what he expected in the file but he remembers feeling like he opened a Pandora's box that perhaps should've stayed closed.

\---

"Why don't you try finding a new purpose, maybe?" Dan comments after a sip of coffee, standing by the machine. "Emu clearly doen't really need you anymore but you shouldn't exactly dwell on it."

"Christ, ever heard of tact?" 

"Ignoring things don't make the issues go away and I don't really care for your relationship drama, though it's perhaps a little cold of Emu to move on so quickly now that I think about it."

"I died, he's allowed to move on, we weren't even together for that long," Kiriya replies back but it's quiet. He rests his arms against the blue railing that guards the stairs, his eyes trailing down the spiral rather than looking at Dan. 

"You're giving up so easily, this doesn't seem like you."

"It's not giving up, it's being realistic, getting back with him isn't..." And Kiriya stops himself and hangs his head between his arms and hands. "There's a better purpose for this life I've been given probably around the corner."

"Oh? Planning on a heroic sacrifice in the future already?"

"It's not like you haven't done it, you just don't like to fucking admit it, yeah?"

Dan Kuroto opens his mouth to reply back but for once he's silent and goes back to drinking his coffee. 

\---

Kiriya is haunted by the memory of seeing Jungo's corpse for the first time but he knows he deserves it.

He remembers running through the corridor after he heard the news but he knows he hesitated outside the door, knows he felt his hands shake as he gripped the door handle. He remembers the chill that went through his body as dread settled deep into his stomach as he pushed open the door and there laid the body of Jungo Aihara. 

Kiriya knows death but he hates that he does, he hates that it follows him. 

He hates that this time, it's his fault, that he caused a human to lose a life and perhaps that's why he's always picked working with the dead, knowing that he's too scared to truly lose a life in his own hands. 

He cries and becomes someone different. 

\---

"Fuck, you're really pissing me off lately," Kiriya mutters as he holds Kuroto against the wall, hands gripped into his blazer, his grip vice-like and channeling his frustration. 

He resents that Kuroto looks down at him to meet his eyes, he glares back at the amused smile on the other bugsters face. 

"And here I thought we were getting along so well, Kujo-san, but," Dan raises an eyebrow, "I wouldn't try and do anything too rash, you do all need me after all."

"Once all this Chronicle bullshit is over, do you really think people will need you? You're disposal."

"Ah, you're projecting at this point, and you don't even realize."

"This act ain't cute, Kuroto," and Kiriya shoves him just a bit harder against the wall and Kiriya hates how relaxed Kuroto looks, hates how nicely the dimmed lights frame his face and features, reminds him of when he'd meet up with Emu late at night and his face would be haloed so nicely.

"Fine, okay, let's talk about this seriously then, the big what if question that seems to be going on in your head lately. Kamen Rider Chronicle is finished, then what? We'll live forever, alongside the humans like Poppy ever so wants, and you can keep Emu's smile on his face for as long a you want, but, you know how it'll go, and it scares you, doesn't it?"

"It-- It doesn't scare me," and the lie roll off his tongue.

"You want to die before you see everyone die around you first," Dan starts to smile ever so, covers Kiriya's hands on his blazer with his own and Kiriya hates that Dan has no real warmth because he knows he's the same. 

Kiriya takes a deep breath. 

"Shut up, Kuroto."

"You act like there'll be no one around, I'll be here, Poppy and Parado too, maybe--"

"I said shut up."

"Make me."

Kiriya yanks at Dan's hair as he pulls him in for a rough kiss and Kuroto shuts up.


	6. Group - Emu's Problems

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is Really Silly.

Emu sometimes wonders if his co-workers and friends think he's stupid.   
  
Sure, he can have a bit of trouble staying up right and sometimes can get a bit distracted from his job but lately after the end of Kamen Rider Chronicle, Emu started to notice a couple of things that are beginning to slightly piss him off.   
  
Namely, the way people were trying to sneak behind his back.   
  
It's not like he's asking for a public announcement or anything but Emu just can't help roll his eyes at the way that Hiiro thinks he's being subtle about Taiga or the way Kiriya is clearly touching Kuroto's ass in the room. He knows what's happening, he's fucking 25, but the way his friends (it's a blanket term he's ended up using a lot, he knows it's complicated) keep acting like he's seeing cryptids if he tries to bring anything up is just starting to get old.   
  
He brings it up with Parado one time and Parado just gives him a look as if to ask why Emu thinks he'd care and Emu actually starts to question himself: why does he care?  
  
But he knows the real answer and that it's mainly that he's a bit of a nosy shit so he does care and frankly he's got issues on a more practical scale. He doesn't feel like he can sit on the couch in CR anymore from just thinking about how Kuroto probably got fucked on it and then sometimes he's scared to visit Taiga's clinic with Hiiro just on the off chance they're going to head off somewhere to fuck and leave him in charge of Taiga's new clinic for an hour with Nico (again.)  
  
Emu has a lot of issues in life but he couldn't have predicted this being one.   
  
He sends everyone a text one evening when he discovers a stain on the CR table that he's not sure if it's frosting or not and that pushes him over the edge.   
  
\---  
  
"I'm pretty sure you guys know why I've called this meeting, yeah?"  
  
"Uh, no, actually," Kiriya replies back, stirring the 10th sugar into his coffee with a slightly amused air. "But I'm sure you're going to tell us why."   
  
Emu looks around the room and pauses for dramatic effect. He begins to open his mouth but--  
  
"Intern, you're wasting our time at this point, spit it out."  
  
"What is this all about, Ex-aid? I'm busy."  
  
"If this is about the broken coffee maker, it simply broke under God's hand--"  
  
"Guys," Emu tries to cut in, somewhat experienced now dealing with these kids that somehow have adult jobs. "Ignoring the coffee machine being broken, that's not what this is about."  
  
"Then what is it? If it's not actually important, I'm leaving," Hiiro replies with his classic unamused look and Emu sticks his hands up to block the surgeon as he starts to stand up.  
  
"It's important! Just, sit down, I'm trying to get to it."  
  
"Emu... Are you stalling?" Kiriya throws him a little smile as if he thinks Emu's stress is cute.  
  
"I'm not stalling! Look, I'm holding this meeting today to talk about," Emu pauses again, clenches his fist, "to talk about the way you guys have been behaving, okay?"  
  
"That's a little vague," Kuroto starts but Emu holds up a hand again in his direction.  
  
"I'm getting to it, just, I don't know how to put this nicely..."  
  
"Then don't? We can take it, buddy," Kiriya gives him another smile before taking a sip of his frankly alarming coffee.  
  
Emu pauses again.  
  
"You guys need to stop fucking in here."  
  
Kiriya chokes a little on the sip he's taking.   
  
"Actually, not just fucking in here but don't you think I notice when you guys go off for half an hour and come back looking rough? I'm getting a little offended, clearly you guys think I'm an idiot or something? Hiiro, Taiga, even Parado can tell about you guys and Kiriya, I know what you're like but, I'm suppose to work here too and I can't knowing that Kuroto's ass--"  
  
"What's wrong with my ass--"   
  
"has probably been on most surfaces around here. It's got to stop, it's seriously... distracting."  
  
"Intern, this is frankly--I, Emu--"  
  
"I think what Hiiro is going to say," Taiga cuts in, giving a sideways glance to the clearly red faced, sputtering Hiiro, "is that we understand where you're coming from, but also, fuck off."  
  
"Taiga!" Hiiro shouts out, face getting even more red with a clear look of embarrassment and distress on his face. Emu wonders if it's cruel to wish he had a camera to capture the moment and sell it off to nurses for ¥1000 a photo.   
  
"What? Ex-aid can fuck off, we hardly get any time to ourselves with our jobs," and Nico around goes unsaid but Emu knows that's what he wanted to say, "so if I see a chance to spend some time with you, I'm gonna take it."  
  
"Taiga-- That's," Hiiro meets the radiologists eyes and Emu could almost puke at the look of love he's clearly giving him. It's not like Emu doesn't support his friends and their relationship but, it's a little too sappy sometimes for his liking. Emu's thoughts however are interrupted by Hiiro changing his look towards him with a stern aura that fails from how red his face still is.   
  
"Intern," Hiiro coughs a little, clearly trying to sound calm and collected again, "you may aptly mind your own business. Your problems lie much more with _other_ members of CR," Hiiro glances at Kiriya and Kuroto on the other side of the table pointedly, "and that's that."  
  
"I feel like you're throwing me under the bus, Kagami-sensei," Kiriya speaks up but there's a cheeky smile on his face now, coffee cup long since put down.   
  
"Yes, well, clearly you're the ones causing the intern more stress, and honestly I do agree, the CR office is not made for you to use as a love hotel--"  
  
"Woah, I feel like i'm suddenly being picked on, does Hanaya not help with that stick in your ass or--"  
  
"Emu," Kuroto cuts in before an argument actually starts.   
  
"Yes...?"  
  
"Where were you last Friday night?"  
  
"Uh, I was at home?"  
  
"Oh! But you weren't, Emu, I know this as a fact," Kuroto starts, getting up from his chair to pace around the table in a slow and dramatic manner that Emu has just gotten used to and makes Kiriya's eyes roll. "See, you thought I was too busy working that night, and I was, I was as quiet as a mouse working away in the empty CR offices in my cell, so quiet in fact that clearly you forgot I was there."  
  
"Does this have a point--"  
  
"Emu!" Kuroto points for effect, "you stand here today to lecture us on our own etiquette but you commit the same crimes you complain about, as I know for a fact that last Friday night, you and Parado had intercourse on the very same chair that Hiiro sits on today!"  
  
Hiiro jumps out of the chair like it electrocuted him and Emu at least has enough shame to look a little sheepish.  
  
"So," Kuroto stops his pacing, somehow managing to end up back next to Kiriya, a small smirk on his face evident like he's won some sort of trial, "will you continue this line of accusations when you yourself are guilty of your own crimes?"  
  
"Look it was just one time--"  
  
"Hey, Emu, Kuroto is right you know, you've lost all moral high ground here--"  
  
"Kiriya! Just-- okay, fine, but just-! Stop fucking on the table!"   
  
The room goes silent, Kiriya takes a sip of his coffee.  
  
Emu meets the amused looks of Kuroto, Kiriya and Taiga and the scandalized look of Hiiro and with as much grace as he can muster, makes a quick escape down the stairs.


End file.
